This is the stock Miata instrument cluster. These will not work with the Fiero systems, so I'll replace them with aftermarket units built into the same housing.
Snapped off the plastic cover and took it all apart. Now to find some nice new instruments to put in.
Pretty nice, eh? These are made by Speedhut and the way it works is that you basically design what you want and they make them. You choose the colour of the bezel and the instrument backing and even the pointer, as well as the font style and any logo you might want on them. Obviously I picked the Ferrari prancing horse to suit the car it is going in. Oh, the middle one in the bottom row is not a Speedhut gauge, it is a fuel/air gauge that will measure the fuel mixture going into the engine so the carburetor can be properly tuned.
I mounted the instruments in a piece of lexan which fits onto the front of the stock instrument cluster. The inside had to be pretty much gutted to fit everything in. I drilled small holes (not shown yet) so the various warning lights and turn signal indicators can show through.
The original instrument cover had to be cut apart pretty drastically to make room for the new instruments. The lexan plate will fit over this so only the outer edge will show.
The back view. None of this circuit stuff is used now. The instrument wires are fed out through the various holes that had light-bulbs and things in them. The new instruments have their own lights, so the ones originally in the Miata cluster aren't used.
A little bit of wiring to tidy up here! The new instruments have to be tapped into the existing Fiero wiring. A matter of studying the wiring diagrams and labelling wires as they are found. Also, cutting out the ones that aren't used helps to keep things neat, but you want to be pretty sure you don't need it before cutting it off.
With the instruments in, the cluster is installed in the dash for a trial fit. Starting to look pretty good.
Skipping a lot of the boring details, the same procedure was used to make a place for a few additional instrument to fit in the centre of the dash. The stock Fiero heater control panel was adapted into the Miata housing. Looks just like the factory intended; not sure which factory though.
Isn't this a nice solution to take care of the space left under the Miata instrument cluster and above the Fiero steering wheel housing? No? OK, maybe it needs a little shaping and then some fibreglass molded over it.
Starting to look a little better now. Some more little bits to be added to fill in some of the spaces, and some angle brackets added to allow it to be screwed in place.
Some more work, including filling, sanding, and painting, and it looks good. It matches up with the under-dash piece from the Miata and leaves a hole for the Fiero steering column.
Everything wired up and working, except the filler piece I just made hasn't been installed back in yet.
This is how the Miata centre console fits when lined up with the dash; not very good. The back has to be trimmed off at the bottom to let is sit down lower. You can see that it is not wide enough to cover the top of the Fiero console.
I cut a thin piece of wood to fit on top of the console. The edges of the console and carpet were protected with aluminum foil and fibreglass mat and resin were used to create a shape that would blend with the carpet on the sides
When the fibreglass was cured it was trimmed off on the sides right where the carpet had a sort of "depressed" area where the stock Fiero console sides were pressing against it. The Miata console was then trimmed off at the bottom until the fit looked good. It can only be trimmed so far and then the cup holders and compartment bottoms hit the Fiero metal structure at the top of the console.
What on earth might this be? It might be a block of foam, covered in packing tape (so the resin won't eat the foam) and then covered in fibreglass resin and mat. When it is cured it is pulled off the foam block leaving a thin-walled fibreglass shell.
Is it starting to make sense now? You can see how the 2 fibreglass pieces fit with the Miata centre console to blend it in with the Fiero structure. The gaps are filled with small pieces of fibreglass, then both pieces are filled, sanded, and painted to match the interior.
The 2 fibreglass pieces finished and in place. The wiring running through the console area has been tidied up as much as possible (there is a lot of it). The various cut-outs in the top console piece are for the bottoms of the cup holders to sit in, to allow the Miata centre console to sit as low as possible, which really isn't low at all since the Fiero console structure is pretty high (fuel tank under there, remember?).
OK, now for some fun stuff. The transmission in this car is an automatic. But that doesn't mean I can't have the look of a Ferrari gated shifter. I machined this plate from a piece of aluminum and then sprayed it with a clear-coat to protect it from oxidizing.
I machined a shift knob from a piece of stainless steel and also modified the stock Fiero auto shifter mechanism. This will allow the shift knob to be pressed down to release the transmission shifter lock, without having one of those buttons on the shifter handle that would be a giveaway that this is an auto. The setscrew in the slot keeps the shift knob from coming off.
Not too bad for an imitation of a Ferrari shifter. Might even fool Enzo himself! Obviously the shifter only moves back and forth in the one slot, the others are just for the illusion. Forward is "park" and the most rearward position in the slot is first gear, just as would be expected. You can see the Miata power window switches just behind the shifter, which work the Fiero windows, even giving the drivers side an "express down" which the Fiero never had.
Put it all together and this is what you get. I'm really pleased with how it came out. The seats need to be recovered before being installed. A few little things still to tidy up, but the major work is done (I think).
So the interior is almost done. Once the seats are back in I'll have to get back to the external stuff. The tail lights and front parking lights need to be finished and wired up. There is still some wiring of the transmission and controller to finish and of course there is a lot of bodywork to be done. I do want to get it on the road and put a few miles on it as soon as it is complete enough.